

He also indicated that Breakthrough Energy will likely raise money to invest in later stage companies, too. In the course of the interview, Gates hinted that Breakthrough Energy Ventures would be raising a third fund by next year to continue to invest in and accelerate the development of these climate startups. In an effort to close that green premium, Gates' investment fund, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, puts money into early-stage startups that are working to to create new pathways for producing things or new ways of doing things. Gates has long talked about the space between the cost of how something is conventionally done and the way it should be do in a decarbonized way the "green premium." To make meaningful change on climate change, that green premium has to slowly reduced and then eliminated in all sectors of the economy, according to Gates. The solution, according to Gates, is creating better technological alternatives where it is the same price or cheaper to accomplish the same goal in a climate-conscious way. "And that not that many people are prepared to be worse off because of climate requirements." "People who are in the climate space may not realize how many things are competing for the modest amount of increased resources that society has," Gates said.

"But just having a few rich countries, a few rich companies and a few rich individuals buy their way out so they can say they're not part of the problem, that has nothing to do with solving the problem," Gates said.Īlso, there are a slew of other issues competing for attention and dollars, including the global pandemic, rising health care costs, aiding poor countries for issues besides climate change, and the war in Ukraine, too. Gates himself pays $9 million a year to compensate for his own greenhouse gas emissions, he said. But I don't think it's realistic for that to play an absolutely central role."Įven if those countries and individuals who have enough abundance in their life and are able to cut back, that won't be enough reduction of greenhouse gas emissions to sufficiently rein in climate change, Gates said. "Anyone who says that we will tell people to stop eating meat, or stop wanting to have a nice house, and we'll just basically change human desires, I think that that's too difficult," Gates said. Most individuals are not going to change their individual behavior in ways that make them less comfortable for the benefit of a global problem, the billionaire technologist said. Other than immense central authority to have people just obey, I think the collective action problem is just completely not solvable," Gates said. "You can have a cultural revolution where you're trying to throw everything up, you can create a North Korean-type situation where the state's in control. The interview was recorded in August before the Inflation Reduction Act was passed. "I don't think it's realistic to say that people are utterly going to change their lifestyle because of concerns about climate," Gates said to Akshat Rathi in an episode of the Bloomberg podcast, "Zero," which published on Thursday. Personal Loans for 670 Credit Score or Lower Personal Loans for 580 Credit Score or Lower Best Debt Consolidation Loans for Bad Credit
